Skyforge Cash Shop Debate Stirs Up Game’s Forums

I didn’t think I’d be writing another Skyforge article so soon today. After this morning’s full class reveal I thought the news out of the My.com camp was done for the day. But then the subject of cash shops and “P2W” came up again on the forums and things went a little haywire for a moment.

If you don’t know by now, the Russian (RU) version of Skyforge is a little farther along the testing path than it is here in the States. As such, if you really dig, you can find streams and videos about topics that really haven’t been brought up much in NA/EU yet. Cash shops and monetization are just such an item. Seeing how the RU cash shop/exchange works doesn’t mean it will work EXACTLY the same way upon release in other markets, but it can give you an idea of where a developer’s head is when it comes to monetization.

Now, here’s where player concerns and a Community Manager’s quick reply cross streams and create a bit of a mess.

A Skyforge player noticed that the following items were possible to do within the RU open beta test version of the game:

Exchanging Argent for credits does not count towards the credit cap

10k Argent (~$7.50) gives 1.5million credits

Every single item in the marketplace can be bought with Argent, including enhancement stones and spark replicators

They then wanted to see if the NA/EU version of the game would follow suit. By itself, are these items “P2W?” Probably not, yes you can use this system to get a jump on things gear and followers wise, but the Spark cap on the Ascension Atlas isn’t bypassed by any of this so, yes, maybe you get ahead a bit faster than a free player, but eventually they will catch up anyway. If you feel that’s “P2W” I can certainly understand your point of view, but unless the grind for me as a free player to catch up makes a purchase almost mandatory, I view it as an “I’ll catch up soon” in my book. If the grind is a mess, then I’d agree with the “P2W” tag.

Regardless of where you stand on that particular issue though, the way the situation was handled by Community Manager Maeron is where the trouble lies. Initially, Maeron closed the forum post after a few “P2W” comments were made and in their full statement said (in part):

…we will strive to provide answers to our members in need of details regarding our monetization – but in turn, we won’t tolerate the word P2W as of today, nor tolerate oversimplification of monetization in topics.

Players were also reminded that repeated failure to comply with forum rules on creating a positive community could result in forum and beta bans to their account.

Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with players.

Hours later, the forum post was again opened back up and the full statement made by Maeron was given the strike through treatment. Maeron also issued an apology on the thread:

In no way did we intend to censor anyone. We respect all opinions and are open to all feedback from our community. Closing this topic and our post above (now strikethrough) was a mistake and we apologize. At the same time we want you to note that we would like to address any question you have and would love to know your personal impressions of the game after you have played it.

We appreciate your feedback, please keep it coming!

Being curious about how the cash shop/exchange system in Skyforge will work myself, I reached out to Community Manager Spunky (you may know him as Spunkify) for a comment on both the monetization of Skyforge and the forum post situation. Spunky said,

This is a bit of a misunderstanding and I want to take a moment to clarify our original intentions with the comment made on the forum:

We are not threatened by discussions revolving around P2W and always welcome feedback, but monetization is a very touchy and polarizing issue which can breed misunderstanding and rumors before it is even officially discussed by a developer. We want to encourage feedback and thoughts on this topic, but we’d like to reinforce that the original thread was made in regards to the RU version of the game. Here in the West the game is not in OBT yet, so I would encourage everyone to reserve their final judgement until that time.

The Allods Team will be releasing the details of their monetization plan soon so we’ll be sure to keep you posted once the plans are available.

Does any of this change your view on the free to play title? Let us know in the comments.

the author

Mike "Magicman" Byrne has been a part of the MMOBomb family for years and serves as the site's current Editor-in-Chief. His love for MMOs and gaming in general has led him to covering games for numerous websites including Gamebreaker TV and XIV Nation where he proudly displays his fanboy flag for FFXIV:ARR.

34 Readers Commented

Quick question, if it is not P2W, how does the game company make a profit? Is skyforge make by Charity? Are they volunteer to make a game for us to play? How do they make money to feed their family and pay their bills?

I have no problem paying $20 to $50 to support games I like. I work 5 days a week to pay my bills. If I wont get pay, I am not going to work for it. It’s a fair deal. No free lunch.

Please give them some ideas, so the game company can make some money and keep polishing the game with new updates.

It is P2W. And the publisher is a well known P2W game designer. Like at the games it is associated with. IF that is not clear enough you have to remove your “hope and dream” goggles and clear your head of marketing caca.

If there weren’t caps on progression in game it’d be one thing. At least you could pay for credits with your time instead of your money. Just another straw in the pile of failures that is skyforge. Shame really, the game itself isn’t that bad.

ok MY.COM realse it … mmo bomb will be like “omg this is awsome watch our next stream” then after 1 year “omg this is shit whe are not promoting this garbage” like they did whit archage…. then…. Skyforge NR 9 in the top 10. okthxbye. NEXT hyped WoW Killer ….. please

A bit of a difference though, AA was bad from the start, I played the beta and it was a horrible game with bad mechanics, Skyforge is actually pretty good, and there is a cap implemented to keep it from being p2w, it’s basically just pay to skip grinding.

Did you guys read the article or skim through, from what the cash shops look like, it is not pay to win. The game was designed a system where gear is based on your experience level. it doesn’t by pass the spark cap at all so its not pay to win. im not bothered by it and some of these comments are dumb (the pay to win one).

Sadly Allods team have not learned anything then.. We will see when the game gets released and if it will be ironed out to a less p2w state.. letts hope since a misstake in something as stupid as this can kill a game flat.. Allods team you know this shit wont hold wake the ….. up or get blamed for everything.

so if you pay money you are stronger then free players? if no then stfu its not p2w its pay for ease. this is how f2p will work they have to make money as long as they are not making it to where you cant be as strong as someone who is paying then who gives a crap. and this game doesnt have dlc

so do they Force me to Buy STASH slots for 5 euro each ..
or NOT
Story DLC one after another
do they force me to buy a mount .. or they just give me a broken donkey cause for super duper lighting bike a would have to pay
etc etc etc
if in most the answer is Yes .. den YES it is P2W and i’m not buying this founder pack …

MAIL.ru and Allods team introduced all the p2w items in the game.Gpotato actually made everything possible to make the game less p2w.Daily quest for mount feed and myrr(xp scroll back in the day) where not avayable in ru as they where in gpotato servers.They hold sales on combat mounts for a long time.They hold sale for patronage 5,they had to nerf mobs in Gorluxor tower so ppl could do it without it.Eventually MAIL.ru prohibited that nerf and they where forced to enable pat5.They wanted to sell it cheap,once again MAIL.ru didnt let them.

Name one thing that could be P2W that will dramatically affect the game. Are you a CBT(er)? do you know how enchantment works? does having someone pay for exp boost bother you when there’s quests to increase your experience in-game as well? the only difference is that you have to work for the exp boost compared to buying?
what proof do you have thats pay to win?
how do you expect a F2P game to make revenue to keep the game up and pay their employee’s without a cashshop?

I ‘m in the beta, and there’s a strict limit to how many credits you can make in game per week. They’re allowing you to bypass that limit with real world currency. Credits are a vital component to increasing your prestige (your level). They’re allowing you to buy levels pretty much.

Any type of experience boost is expected. To balance it out, they’re having a sub option, whatever they decide to do with that, im pretty sure it balances out the exp boost concern. I am in the beta as well but the question was strictly for the poster above. Guy trolls a lot by:
1) Fails assumption
2) hasn’t tested the damn game
3) explaining the mechanics wrongly.

–
I don’t have a problem with some type of experience boost (again) and neither should anyone, it is not game breaking. eventually everyone will catch up and people just placed out their wallets for nothing. but this applies to a lot of games, kinda explains a lot in other opinions I have not related to this and will not discuss.

This goes far beyond an xp booster. With those you still have to put it some work. Here you could sit in the lobby all day and just buy prestige, you don’t even have to step into a mission or open world.